Department of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD.
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Autism Res. 2018 Feb;11(2):245-257. doi: 10.1002/aur.1858. Epub 2017 Sep 12.
Functional connectivity differences between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children have been described in multiple datasets. However, few studies examine the task-related changes in connectivity in disorder-relevant behavioral paradigms. In this paper, we examined the task-related changes in functional connectivity using EEG and a movement-based paradigm that has behavioral relevance to ASD. Resting-state studies motivated our hypothesis that children with ASD would show a decreased magnitude of functional connectivity during the performance of a motor-control task. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, however, we observed that task-related modulation of functional connectivity in children with ASD was in the direction opposite to that of TDs. The task-related connectivity changes were correlated with clinical symptom scores. Our results suggest that children with ASD may have differences in cortical segregation/integration during the performance of a task, and that part of the differences in connectivity modulation may serve as a compensatory mechanism. Autism Res 2018, 11: 245-257. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Decreased connectivity between brain regions is thought to cause the symptoms of autism. Because most of our knowledge comes from data in which children are at rest, we do not know how connectivity changes directly lead to autistic behaviors, such as impaired gestures. When typically developing children produced complex movements, connectivity decreased between brain regions. In children with autism, connectivity increased. It may be that behavior-related changes in brain connectivity are more important than absolute differences in connectivity in autism.
在多个数据集描述了自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童与典型发育儿童之间的功能连接差异。然而，很少有研究在与疾病相关的行为范式中检查连接的任务相关变化。在本文中，我们使用 EEG 和与 ASD 具有行为相关性的运动为基础的范式检查了功能连接的任务相关变化。静息状态研究激发了我们的假设，即 ASD 儿童在执行运动控制任务时表现出功能连接幅度降低。然而，与我们的初始假设相反，我们观察到 ASD 儿童的功能连接的任务相关调制方向与 TD 相反。与临床症状评分相关的任务相关连接变化。我们的结果表明，在执行任务时，ASD 儿童的大脑分离/整合可能存在差异，而连接调制的差异部分可能作为一种补偿机制。自闭症研究 2018 年，11:245-257。©2017 自闭症研究国际协会，威利期刊，公司。
大脑区域之间连通性的降低被认为是导致自闭症症状的原因。由于我们的大部分知识来自于儿童处于休息状态的数据，因此我们不知道连通性变化如何直接导致自闭症行为，例如受损的手势。当典型发育的儿童产生复杂的动作时，大脑区域之间的连通性会降低。在自闭症儿童中，连通性增加。可能与自闭症相关的大脑连接的行为相关变化比连通性的绝对差异更为重要。
